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Mid-Republican Legion Velites

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:20 pm
by jaxenro
Hi

The base proportions of Velites to H&P and Trairii make sense for a Polybian army in the starter army (4 velites, 8 H&P, and 2 Trairii) but basing the Velites as light at 2 per base looks right but leaves the figure proportions looking odd. There ends up being equal number Velites and Trairii and twice as many Hastati and Principes.

If I leave the base sizes the same (60x30 in 28mm) can I use 4 Velites per base and pretend their are tow? They might look a little crowded but at least my figures will be 32 Velites, 32 Hastati, 32 Principes, and 16 Trairii which sounds like the 1,200, 1,200, 1,200, and 600 that is historically accurate, or about 75 men per figure (assuming I make two legions out of a starter army).

This would give me a legion of 56 figures split 16 velites, 32 h&p, and 8 trairii plus companion cavalry

Re: Mid-Republican Legion Velites

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:47 pm
by ravenflight
jaxenro wrote:Hi

The base proportions of Velites to H&P and Trairii make sense for a Polybian army in the starter army (4 velites, 8 H&P, and 2 Trairii) but basing the Velites as light at 2 per base looks right but leaves the figure proportions looking odd. There ends up being equal number Velites and Trairii and twice as many Hastati and Principes.

If I leave the base sizes the same (60x30 in 28mm) can I use 4 Velites per base and pretend their are tow? They might look a little crowded but at least my figures will be 32 Velites, 32 Hastati, 32 Principes, and 16 Trairii which sounds like the 1,200, 1,200, 1,200, and 600 that is historically accurate, or about 75 men per figure (assuming I make two legions out of a starter army).

This would give me a legion of 56 figures split 16 velites, 32 h&p, and 8 trairii plus companion cavalry
I'd suggest not doing that.

I'm not a stickler for the conventions. For example, I've based up some 28mm HF with 3 to a base on 60x30mm bases, but I think you've got to be careful when you're basing figures to make it very clear which are lights and which are not.

I could accept people being able to see 'velites' as 'lights' but there would be issues in the way it would look and feel to the veteran players of the rules.

In this particular case, stick with convention I'd suggest.